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September 22, 2007

Navigating the Old-Fashioned Way

Before computers and global positioning systems, mariners set their course with a sextant, a rotating instruments that use the sun and stars for celestial navigation. Many sailors still keep sextants on their vessels in case their electronic navigation equipment fails. Ravishankar VK, an ocean engineering student visiting from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, practiced with the instrument during a field trip on the research vessel Tioga. He was one of 29 students to participate in undergraduate fellowships at WHOI in 2007.